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Health disparities among Baton Rouge's poorest place city behind its peers in health care

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In the first of a series of stories examining health care disparities across the United States, the Los Angeles Times compares Baton Rouge with St. Paul, Minn.'s vastly different health care system, and describes practices at Baton Rouge's Capitol City Family Health Center and St. Paul's Open Cities Health Center.
(Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-Picayune archive)

In America's healthiest cities, more
residents have health insurance; doctors and hospitals cooperate more closely
on matters; and business and community leaders are active in driving efforts to
increase the access to health care, track the results and improve the quality
of healthcare in their neighborhoods.

"Those ingredients are often
missing in places such as Baton Rouge, where a poorly organized health system
joins poverty, low education and bad diet to form a toxic mix," a recent Los Angeles Times article reads. In
Baton Rouge, where a large amount of residents are without insurance, many
health care disparities exist among the poorest population of the city. Baton
Rouge-based Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center CEO Scott Wester says
that lack of insurance "is really the No. 1 driver of our health care
challenges" in Louisiana.

While the country continues to grapple over offering affordable health care for American residents, the Los Angeles Times compares Baton Rouge
with St. Paul, Minn.'s vastly different health care system, and describes practices at
Baton Rouge's Capitol City Family Health Center and St. Paul's Open Cities Health
Center. The article is the first in a series examining health care disparities across the United States.

Studies show that between these two
cities, diabetics, young patients with asthma and poor seniors have a better
chance at more advanced healthcare in Minnesota than Louisiana.

"Being low income doesn't destine
you to poor healthcare. Where you live matters," said David Radley, a
health policy expert who has led several studies on geographic disparities in
medical care for the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan research foundation that
analyzes healthcare systems, the newspaper reads.